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I'm all for preventative maintenance. The last thing I need is my car stranding me and not being able to call somebody or have to wait for a tow. I'd rather get it done and then my worries can be avoided.

For the record, replaced my crankshaft sensor along with my camshaft sensors when my intake camshaft sensor was playing up. Sort of pre-emptive strike as it were. Nine months later got a crankshaft sensor fault. Had to replace it again. Begs the question. Did I prevent a problem by replacing the original working crankshaft sensor or create one? The truth is that there is no such thing as preventative maintenance. Might reduce the risk a bit but its not necessarily going to protect you from failure.

i do a bit of both, preventive for the bigger things, but say something like the clutch, i know one day its going to be so worn its just gonna slip all day, but its not going to really kill anything, so ill leave that in for know, then when i drop the transmission to replace that, ill preventatively replace other things too. engine belts? all the time, id rather not risk it. expansion tank, replaced about a 30000 mi ago, shouldnt have to worry about that for a little bit.. windshield washer pump? no thanks, ill wait for that.
you catch my drift..

Depends on the part and likelihood of failure. Cheap things like oil, air filters, sparks I do quicker than recommended. Other things like tranny/diff fluid, fuel filter, cooling system and pulleys at 100k. The only other thing I find needed is the vanos. Outside of that I think everything else is overboard.

For the record, replaced my crankshaft sensor along with my camshaft sensors when my intake camshaft sensor was playing up. Sort of pre-emptive strike as it were. Nine months later got a crankshaft sensor fault. Had to replace it again. Begs the question. Did I prevent a problem by replacing the original working crankshaft sensor or create one? The truth is that there is no such thing as preventative maintenance. Might reduce the risk a bit but its not necessarily going to protect you from failure.

Absolutely prevent? No. But statistically the less time something has been in service, the less likely it is to suffer a failure. That still counts as preventative in my book.

As I mentioned earlier in this thread -- anything that can cause a catastrophic failure (cause much more expensive damage) and/or leave me stranded, I change preventively. Anything else I'll let fail before I replace.

Though I should mention with items such as shocks, they may not fail even if their performance has degraded significantly. Part of why I bought this car is for performance, so I'll replace such items before complete failure as well.

If nothing else I just practice PM for my own peace of mind. I sometimes replace working parts just because they are prone to failures (fuel pump, exp tank, alternator) and I don't want to be stranded and stuck with a huge towing bill. Another plus side to PM is that I fix the parts when it's convenient for me and I don't have to rush ship parts and scramble to get my car repaired. I can take my time and make the repairs when I want to. We have all of this collective knowledge about our vehicles and items that are failure prone so why would I not take every action to avoid them?

I sometimes replace working parts just because they are prone to failures (fuel pump, exp tank, alternator) and I don't want to be stranded and stuck with a huge towing bill.

You can get quite far when your alternator fails. When I noticed my alternator light was on I got another 25 miles at least riding on my battery until it got too low. Enough to get to service or home in most cases.

This needs and in between option. Some things on these cars need to be replaced regularly and if you know when the last time they were replaced is, and you know how much time/miles have passed then yea go ahead and replace em before they show symptoms.

I do however see a lot of people that replace parts all over the place for no real reason and Im not sure that's really necessary. I wouldn't say Im against it persay, but I dont do it on my car.
Personally I have just found a mechanic I trust, I take him the car every 5 months or so, he gives me a quote on what he thinks the car needs usually 200-500 dollars. I do research to make sure the quote makes sense.
Then I select what I want done and he does it.

This needs and in between option. Some things on these cars need to be replaced regularly and if you know when the last time they were replaced is, and you know how much time/miles have passed then yea go ahead and replace em before they show symptoms.

Kind of a guideline as to what to replace to avoid being stranded.
I think I see your mission statement as self-defined!
Let me know if you need someone to do a rough edit?